


11,950

by Rivine



Category: Pine Gap
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-28 21:58:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17191055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivine/pseuds/Rivine
Summary: Moses might not be allowed to be her friend, but Marissa decides she can still try to be his.





	11,950

“Why do you want to work at Pine Gap?” the older of the two bastards asked.

The other one—the smugger one, he’d said his name was Jacob Kitto—chimed in. “Hold off on that for a minute, why on Earth would we even think about hiring you? You’re just some girl who fucked up her welfare bad enough she had to sleep on a strange man’s sofa. That’s hardly prime ASD material, is it?”

“Yeah, well, you’ve already looked into me, haven’t you? Like, you’ve figured out I wasn’t getting Moses over a barrel so I could blackmail him into doing shit for me, right? So you you ought to know I can be trusted not to do anything bad.” Marissa shoved her hands deeper into the pockets of her coat, wondering if it was even worth it. It sucked whenever she looked at her phone, though, and saw the glitter swirling in its case. “And it’s not like I’m asking you to make me one of your spies, or anything. You’ve got to have real gardeners there, or cafeteria workers, or janitors. You’re not all scrubbing your own toilets, are you?”

The older one, Rudi Fox, looked like he was trying not to smile at that. He’d seemed nicer when they had questioned her about Moses, and he didn’t like Kitto, so Marissa turned to him. “Look, I just want a job, all right?”

“Let’s go back to why Pine Gap,” Fox said. “Is there any particular reason?”

“Once I got clearance, or whatever, I could be friends with Moses again, couldn’t I?” Marissa asked. “It’d be all out in the open and wouldn’t be a security risk anymore.”

“Oh yeah, sure, I can see that,” Kitto said. “I’d definitely go through vetting just so I could hang out with him and chat about maths.”

“Believe it or not, he’s not a total dick, unlike some guys,” Marissa told Kitto. More quietly, she said, “He was going to show me why my phone case moves the way it does. The maths stuff.”

“It’s too bad that things didn’t work out for you with Moses, but this is a very serious thing. Friendship doesn’t come into it,” Fox said, in the same awkwardly gentle tone he’d used to ask her if Moses had been a creep.

“Well, I am serious,” Marissa said, “and I’m going to keep trying every time there’s an opening posted. Can’t say I’m looking forward to having to see you two every time, though.”

 

***

 

They rejected her application without an interview the next time she applied, and the time after. She watched the glitter fall slowly down.

The fourth time time, Fox brought the rejection letter to her in person, and tried to talk her out of it.

The fifth time it was back to mail delivery.

 

***

“Hey, Mr. Maths Nerd, look what I got.” Marissa held her lanyard up, the security card dangling from it. Moses had looked happy to see when she got on the bus, which was a relief. She hadn’t gotten to really talk to him since he threw her out of his house for the pills, and she hadn’t been totally sure he would forgive her, even after she had saved him.

“It’s like, the lowest level,” she added as she slid into the seat next to him.

“Congratulations, you’re now one of the highest-clearance dishwashers in the country,” Moses said. He leaned back against the window. “I know how you did the string trick. With the ring.”

“It’s pretty good, isn’t it? It’s easy, but it looks cool.”

“I brought you something really cool,” Moses said, and raised the book he was holding. It had a dull navy blue cover with a few squiggly lines running across it, and _An Introduction to_ _Fluid Dynamics_ written across the top.


End file.
